Babes in Toyland (1961)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Absolutely Brilliant!

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Look.I'm tired of defending this great movie all the time to everyone, if you don't get it you are a mean scrooge.It is time to acknowledge this film for all the great qualities it has. A high standard of professionalism,amazing retro special effects and true faithful rendering of Victor Herbert and Mother Goose. Christmas time would be empty without this charming,quaint, film. It's educational value? It teaches kids about more refined subjects like musical operetta and cultural history rather than what is the latest blow em' up and kill your neighbor video game trend. The music has history rather than flash in the pan theatrics of a current trend (kids raised on this are more likely to be eclectic and informed in their musical taste than kids who stick only to the latest trends)you can tell I am not big on trends. Kids need education and brains, not trends. If I had known that when I was younger I would be better off now.I love all kinds of music. But I love opera(what's opera Doc?)and classical music. This movie can inspire small children along those lines. Plus it is'nt just a fuddy duddy film, it's very populist and quaintly oddball, which is fun.The film is also,like most classic Disney,Very safe, and family friendly(I don't even think there is any cigar smoking here which could be common in older kiddie flicks). Annette Funnicello is also a very clean,safe popular icon image for kids to like, unlike many of the juvenile role models they have today who are constantly getting into trouble(I mean,God,who wants to explain the reckless behavior of a Lindsey,Hilary or a Miley to their kids).But alas,fans of this film,we are alone and out-numbered.Even the Disney studio does'nt care enough to enhance and restore this beautiful gem(still looks great nonetheless).The Hal Roach comedy is incredible and wonderful, but it gets all the accolades and acclaim.This film deserves better treatment. The Hal Roach film is essentially a comedy. Disney's film is what Victor Herbert intended. An operetta.I see more and more people are speaking up on behalf of this much neglected film classic. Keep up the good work. Maybe we can inspire a movement and fight all the boogeyman scrooges who hate this adorable little treasure.God Bless.

This film is one of my favorite Disney live-action musicals, and a wonderful Christmas film too. It use to be on TV when I was a kid, but not anymore. I was fortunate to buy it on DVD though. The film is also based on an operetta by Victor Herbert with new lyrics by Mel Leven, and of course I thought it's a great soundtrack.In the film, Annette Funicello plays Mary Quite-Contrary and Tommy Sands plays Mary's fiancée Tom Piper, the Piper's son. As Mary and Tom's wedding approaches, evil schemer Barnaby (The Wizard of OZ's Ray Bolger) hatches a plot to drown Tom, and steal Mary's sheep to get her to marry him...for the money she will inherit. But unfortunately for Barnaby, the two henchmen he had order to kill Tom, kidnap him instead and sell him to a band of gypsies...for more money of course, since they're being paid by Barnaby to get rid of Tom.But eventually those same gypsies put on a show in Mother Goose Village, and Mary discovers Tom is alive, the couple had a happy reunion. But when the two went back to Mary's cottage, the children in Mary's care, Wee Willie Winkie, Little Boy Blue and Little Bo Peep had gone to look for the sheep in the Forest of No Return. The two found the children, but they spend the night in the forest. In the morning, the band were "captured" by the trees of the forest and escorted to Toyland to see the Toymaker. That's all I could tell you folks, you will have to see the film for yourself how it ends.Overall, this film's a wonderful Disney production; too bad it had a disappointing box office performance.

i love this movie and it's a terrific classic, all the movie characters are mother goose characters living in a town with such houses as the giant shoe and the pumpkin house. Little bo peep lost her sheep in the forest of no return causing mary contrary and tom piper to follow the kids after them when they attempt to locate the lost animals...instead they stumble upon the lost toyland and get pulled into a world of mishaps including a shrinking invention gone wrong, making tom piper no more than a few inches tall....also there are wonderful songs and dance scenes including a gypsie dance and beautiful serenades by the classic annette funicello...a must see kid classic!

I used to think 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' was the very worst experience a parent could inflict on a child. I was wrong. There is also this Disney atrocity to contend with.When Victor Herbert produced his 'Babes in Toyland' on Broadway in 1903, it followed on the steps of the preceding stage extravaganza, 'The Wizard of Oz', which it outdid in magnificence, costliness (its shipwreck scene outdid 'The Wizard's cyclone, its Toyland outdid the other's Emerald City, etc.), imagination and original melodies. It was eventually followed by another Victor Herbert Christmas spectacle, 'Little Nemo in Slumberland' (1908), which surpassed them all in spectacular stage effects, number of participants and box office. This was a magic time when sentimental Irish Catholic New-Yorkers genuinely believed that when they went to heaven, they would hear Victor Herbert's tunes sung by angel choirs until the end of time.Unfortunately, all of Herbert's operettas would have been totally forgotten today if it hadn't been for the awful Hollywood Laurel and Hardy vehicle of the thirties ("Babes in Toyland", 1934, a.k.a. "Laurel and Hardy in Toyland", "March of the Wooden Soldiers", "Revenge Is Sweet" and "Wooden Soldiers"), which preserved its spirit of pantomime and most of its storyline but sacrificed its music by relegating the whole score (except for five songs) to a very scratchy and noisy background on the soundtrack.Then came Disney. This film (available on DVD) is nothing more than an elaborate episode of the Mickey Mouse Club. The story has been changed around for no reason: the only remaining common element through all the different versions is that there is a villain in Mother Goose Land named Barnaby Barnacle, who wears a tall black top hat and a long moustache, has two funny acolytes in crime and is out to prevent a happy ending for the other younger cast members. The original songs have been simplified, modernized, 'disneyfied', 'cutified', 'Lawrence-Welked' and bowdlerized almost out of existence, probably because they would have been considered too 'difficult' for the intended nose-picking kiddie audience. This is very ironic since it contributed to 'Babes' downfall at the box office and served as a lesson to Disney who did everything in his power, subsequently, with 'Mary Poppins' to provide a great score, first-class singers, great orchestration, and a nostalgic feel closer to traditional turn-of-the century entertainments.The only reason I am not harsher on Disney's story treatment is that it was followed in 1986 by an even worse live action treacly TV version and in 1997 by the definitely dismal animated one (MGM).'I Can't Do the Sum', whose main musical idea was that a group of schoolchildren, perplexed by a mathematical problem verging on the absurd, would punctuate their singing by scratching their chalk rhythmically on their chalkboards is now without chalkboard sounds - and logic. The forest lullaby is without its mystery and comfort. The title song, the very inspiring 'Toyland', is not even given a proper (choral) rendition but is instead screeched by a group of untalented children walking through the forest as if on their way to the washrooms of an amusement park to regurgitate their candy floss.Even 'The March of the Wooden Soldiers' (which has managed to survive on its own as a beloved orchestral Christmas favourite in America and a Boston Pops staple) is not even given the dignity of a proper Christian burial but truncated and drowned under a cacophony of sound effects and pie-in-the-face-type slapstick.There is nothing to salvage this mess, not even the wholehearted effort of its cast, with a special tip of the hat to Tommy Sands in a Gypsy scene (in drag) somewhat reminiscent of Stanley Donen's 'The Pirate' (1948).The only way to hear Victor Herbert's original score today - along with Glen MacDonough's original lyrics - is to hunt for a 2002 Universal CD reprising a 1944 mono studio recording of 11 of the original numbers (still heavily truncated) and the vinyl Readers' Digest 'Treasury of Operettas' 9-LP boxset, which contains 8 numbers, in very impressive 'Cyclophonic' stereo. Conductor Keith Brion also came out with a CD of extensive dreamy orchestral extracts from this operetta (including ballets and scene changes and an extended Overture). There doesn't seem to exist a recording of the entire score which comprises, apparently, dozens of different numbers.